President Buhari Never Ordered Dismantling of Military Checkpoints – NSA, Sambo Dasuki

The National
Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) has said that President
Muhammadu Buhari never ordered the dismantling of all military checkpoints in
the country.

His statement
overrides the statement made by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of
Defence, Ismail Aliyu, who after a security meeting last month, announced that
the president had ordered the dismantling of military roadblocks and directed
the police to take over internal security.

Dasuki, who met
top military and security chiefs in his office in Abuja yesterday clarified
that the directive of the president was never a blanket order to remove all
military checkpoints. The NSA said
military roadblocks in flashpoints would continue to be maintained while those
in relatively peaceful areas would be dismantled but soldiers would continue to
be positioned in those areas while not blocking roads.

He said it was
both conventional and the global practice for governments to increase security
measures whenever insecurity is heightened and appealed to citizens to endure
the temporary inconvenience the roadblocks may cause. According to
him, essential security checkpoints in vulnerable areas were a “necessary inconvenience”
to ensure criminals and terrorists do not have easy passage”. He cited some
arrests made recently including that of the mastermind of bomb attacks in some
towns who were nabbed by Nigerian troops at such checkpoints.

While
condemning the indiscriminate proliferation of security checkpoints by
unauthorised bodies, he said: “We will continue to ensure that the necessary or
essential security checkpoints are not avenues for extortion, indiscipline and
other forms of corrupt practices that can exacerbate traffic flow and cause
road accidents.”

He added that
the government was deploying new sophisticated scanners and detectors in some
areas to ease traffic and to identify movement of strange objects, concealed
weapons and criminal suspects. “With the effective use of technology, which
minimizes physical contact between security personnel and citizens, the time
spent at designated security checkpoints will ultimately be reduced,” he said.

Dasuki added
however that “whenever necessary, soldiers will mount their checkpoints to
conduct security screening in emergency situations and for quick response”.